Praises to Twenty-One Taras Lecture Five Contents Contents2 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector2 Miraculous Stories of Tara’s Blessing..............2 Drolma Tronyer Chendze.................... 11 Drolma Rabtu Shyiwa...................... 17 Drolma Barwé Öchen...................... 24 Drolma Pakmé Nönam..................... 29 When I was young, I always thought of Tara as my mother. In my mind, I trusted her in exactly the same way that I trust my own mother and I always hold a sincere devotion to her, and felt secure in the belief that by praying to her, all obstacles and disasters in this world can be dispelled. When faced with a problem, my first thought is always: “Tara, please come to help me.” Such devotion and conviction have been within me since I was a kid. – Khenpo Sodargye Tara, Your Forever Protector 5 Miraculous Stories of Tara’s Blessing Now let us continue with Praises to the Twenty-One Taras. As you have been learning this teaching, you have probably been realizing that Tara has the ability to provide great blessing. Her blessing is not a myth nor is to speak of it making a groundless statement. Rather, if we pray to her, and think of her constantly, we will undoubtedly experience the swift infusion of her blessing. I’m sure that after having absorbed this teaching, many Buddhists listening to this, will purchase an image of Tara and worship her in their shrine rooms or place her image in their offices. The image of Tara is normally found in the form of a thangka painting or a gold-plated statue. In India, there are also many statues of Tara that are exquisitely crafted from sandalwood or other highly valued woods. In fact, the Tara teachings are very popular in both the Tibetan region and in India, as can be seen from their local arts and cultural traditions. In the Tibetan region, almost every household has a Tara statue on their shrines and if you go into the shops that carry Buddhist items, you will notice many 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector 3 people purchasing images of Tara. People who recite the Tara mantra can be found everywhere, as well. So, as we learn the devotional practices dedicated to Tara, as well as listen to the many miraculous stories about her, we should realize that this practice is not restricted to Tibet, but is applied quite broadly throughout India, as well. Around the Vajra Seat in Bodh Gaya, it is well known, that many miracles related to Tara have taken place near to there. One story refers to a bhikkhu from the Theravada tradition who had rejected and slandered the deity of Tara. Once, while crossing a river near Bodh Gaya, he fell into the rushing water and was swept away and nearly drowned. At that moment, it occurred to him that: “People say Tara is a protector who saves beings from the fear of water” so, as he was feeling very afraid, he cried out, “Tara! Tara!” and suddenly, a wooden statue of Tara that was in the Vajra Seat, appeared to him and said, “You never think of me or respect me—why do you call for my help now?” But the Tara got him out of the water anyway. Since then, that particular statue is known as the “Tara who Enters Into the Water”, because she went into the water herself to rescue the drowning bhikkhu. Another story about Tara took place at the Vajra Seat itself: There was an old lady who was very devoted to Tara and intended to build a shrine room for her near to the Mahabodhi. To accomplish this task, she hired people, at great cost to herself, to build the shrine room. When it was completed, the woman found that the door of the shrine hall was facing in the opposite direction of the Mahabodhi, which is not correct. Although, she felt very bad 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector 4 about this, she could not afford to reconstruct it. As a result, she felt remorseful and regretful that she hadn’t thought the construction through more completely before the construction began, and now that the building was nearly completed, she didn’t have a clue of what to do to fix the mistake. As she was feeling very sad and distressed about this, the statue of Tara spoke to her: “If you are not pleased, I shall turn my face towards the Mahabodhi.” At that moment, both the door to the shrine room, and the statue, on its own, turned around until they were both facing the proper direction. This Tara later became known as the “Tara of the Turning Face”. While there are many stories like these that are well-known in India, such stories are also told in Tibet where many monasteries have shrine halls dedicated to Tara. There is a story that took place at the Tara shrine hall in Sera Monastery. It once happened, that just as a monk was passing by the shrine, he accidentally slipped and just as has he was about to hit the ground, he instinctively cried out: “Mama!”, at which point, Tara responded to him, speaking in a clear voice: “Mama is here”. The monk looked up and noticed that it was the statue of Tara who was talking. When I was young, I always thought of Tara as my mother. In my mind, I trusted her in exactly the same way that I trust my own mother and I always hold a sincere devotion to her, and felt secure in the belief that by praying to her, all obstacles and disasters in this world can be dispelled. When faced with a problem, my first thought is always: “Tara, please come to help me.” Such devotion and conviction have been within me since I was a kid. In my shrine, I have many statues 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector 5 of the Buddha Shakyamuni and also of Tara, made in many different sizes, as well as with varying degrees of craftsmanship. Most of these, I brought back from visits to such countries as India and Thailand. When I was a child, we didn’t have a statue of the Buddha or Tara but we used to play games where we would put little bones and pebbles on a big rock and pretend that they were the green Tara, the white Tara or other deities. We used to place fine sand in front of them as offerings, and that’s how we played when we were little. I always think that over the course of my life, many obstacles that might have impeded my Dharma practice have miraculously disappeared. This, I feel, must have something to do with my sincere devotion to Tara and her powerful blessing. I’m sure some of you who attend this teaching will one day have great resources in respect of wealth and power. I hope by then you will make use of some of that wealth or power to install some Tara statues, whenever you have an opportunity. Say for instance, that you become the abbot of a monastery, then, first thing, you should commission a statue of Tara to be placed in the monastery, as that will be very beneficial for the local people in terms of dispelling disasters. As we have said previously, all kinds of disasters including tornadoes, floods, and fires, can be eliminated through Tara’s blessing. In this degenerate time, practitioners who are able to overcome obstacles by themselves are extremely rare. Even though we all wish our practice to go smoothly and successfully from beginning to end, adverse conditions will from time to time, occur, either as a result of our 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector 6 afflictions or caused by demonic forces. When they appear, it will feel as if the control of our mind has been taken from us. In times like these, it is very difficult to overcome these negativities or bring them under control on our own. However, by relying on transcendental power by such actions as praying to Tara, adverse conditions can be counteracted through her extraordinary blessing. The inconceivable power of her blessing is not easy for us ordinary beings to describe in words or to understand with our conceptual thinking. The Thangka of Tara in the New Year’s Eve Through this study, I believe that whenever and wherever you see the figure of Tara, a great devotion to her will arise in you. I remember that when I was a child of about six or seven years old, my family was living in a neighborhood with several other households, who were all, including my family, nomads herding yaks. A senior monk lived next to our tent that was a very close friend of mine. He had several thangkas that he kept in his tent, among which was a thangka of Tara, and every New Year’s Eve according to the Tibetan calendar, if there were no unexpected events taking place, he would hang up the thangkas for the entire day. When the old monk hung up the thangka of Tara, all of us in the neighborhood, kids and grown-ups, would enter his tent and pay homage to her. In my memory, I can clearly recall that every time we saw the thangka of Tara, we were very delighted. We all looked forward to the coming of the next New Year’s 5 Tara, Your Forever Protector 7 Eve, so that we could see her holy image again. This was in the late 60s to the early 70s, which was an unusual period of time when the religious policy was very strict and it was not easy to get the chance to see Buddhist-related images.